Checking up on a Former Love
by Swa-Sa Masou
Summary: Spoby sweetness and a check up from Alex after Mona is taken away. Set during the summer between seasons two and three. One-shot


_**A/N: A lot happened to the girls over the first two seasons. A lot of relationships were destroyed or tested to the point of breaking. One of the sweetest ones was Spencer and Alex. I can't imagine that after hearing about Mona, he didn't come try to talk to Spencer about it at all.**_

It had been such a perfect summer. Mona was behind bars, or at least a heavily locked door in a mental facility. Aria, Hanna, and she had been with each other or with their respective guys nearly every day. The dark spot was that Emily was away working on building homes in a foreign country. She needed that to let go of Maya, though. They all understood.

A was finally off their backs. It had been an entire school year and so much had fallen apart because of A. Now, spencer could finally relax in the loving arms of her boyfriend. Now they had nothing to come between them. Jenna wasn't an issue any more and Garret seemed to be leaving them alone as well.

Spencer and Toby were enjoying a nice walk around outside, basking in the summer sun and in the glow of their blossoming love. She was making up for all of the terrible things she'd had to say to him because of A and he seemed to be trying to make up for pretending to hate her.

Life was feeling pretty great.

As they rounded the corner to Spencer's front porch, Toby's hand stiffened in hers. "Hey, what's wrong? You okay?" She followed his gaze to the steps leading to her front door and froze.

"Spencer? I take it you know him?" she didn't respond so he gently pulled on her hand until she turned to face him. "Hey, friend or foe? Do you want me to get rid of him?"

"No. Umm, no, I do know him. He's a friend, or at least, he used to be." Alex Santiago was sitting on her porch. What in the world was he doing here? It had been months since she'd spoken to him. She even went out of her way to avoid the Tennis courts at the club so they wouldn't have to talk. "You've met him actually. Remember homecoming?"

Toby grimaced. They both knew he'd had feelings for Emily at the time. Due to her *ahem* unavailability for him, they generally just chose not to go there. Not to mention that so much had been so screwed up in just one night. "Yeah, but honestly, I don't remember much beyond what happened in the chem room with me and Emily. I was still really not into talking to the rest of you. I don't even remember your reaction to me showing up with her."

Spencer gave him a disbelieving look, "well, long story, short: we weren't happy. But, this guy was my date to that dance. You did meet him, but I understand why you don't remember. Can you give us a minute? I'll catch up with you inside."

They continued to walk across the yard toward the awaiting young man. "You sure you want me inside? I can just hang out over here until you're done talking…"

"Toby, it'll be fine. I promise." They approach the porch and Alex stands up.

"Hey, Spencer. I was hoping I could talk to you." He looked over to Toby. "Hi, I'm Alex." and held out his hand for Toby to shake. Toby reached out to return the handshake.

"Hi, Toby. Actually, we met. Homecoming, right?" Spencer tried not to chuckle at her boyfriend's blatant attempt to have the upper hand here despite her having to remind him of this only moments ago.

"Right, right, yeah. I remember you now." Alex smiled in a friendly way.

Toby smiled back, not at easily. "Well, Spence, I'll be inside." He pulled Spencer's hand, still intertwined with his up to his lips for a quick peck before awkwardly stepping around Alex to enter the house.

Spencer let out a short laugh. "Well, now that he's all done marking his territory, hey, Alex, how have you been?" Spencer smiled and stepped forward for a quick hug, which he returned, before sitting down on the step and motioning for him to do the same.

"Well, I've been better. I mean, I have just shown up at my ex-girlfriend's house to see her walking up the lane with her new, obviously protective boyfriend," Alex and Spencer both chuckled at that. "but no, I've been good. Working a lot of hours at the club and getting ready to start senior year. How have you been?"

"I'm guessing you've read about or seen the whole 'Mona tried to kill me' thing in the news, right? So other than that, I've been real good."

"Yeah, actually, that was what I wanted to talk to you about…" He trailed off, looking uncomfortable.

"Alex, I had to do a lot of stuff because of A, uh, because of Mona. It was a rough year."

He was staring at his shoes and didn't seem inclined to look up. "Yeah, I figured that. I guess I was wondering if the reason we broke up, was that her? I jumped down your throat for that. I really thought you were pushing me to be someone I didn't want to be."

Spencer sighed and leaned back, using her arms to brace herself against the top step. "Yeah, that was her. Granted, at the time, we thought A was somebody totally different. Someone who was not a good person anyway, but wasn't A. I'm really sorry I didn't try to explain it to you. But 'my cyber-stalker probably submitted it to drive a wedge between us.' Isn't exactly super believable."

"Ha. Yeah. I wouldn't have believed you and I would've gotten even angrier that you had tried to tell me something like that. It wouldn't have worked in your favor." He finally looked up to meet her eyes. "I guess I just wanted to come up here and apologize. We'd been through so much in that short time together and I just walked away from one fight, about something really stupid at that. So, I'm really, really sorry. I should have given you a chance to explain."

"Alex, thank you. I mean, I kind of got over it…" Spencer let out a soft giggle and put a strand of hair behind her ear. "Okay, so I really got over it. But it's still good to know that you cared enough to come all the way up here to apologize." She put a hand on his shoulder. "Thank you."

"Well, uh, I guess I didn't come all this way just to apologize. I was hoping that maybe you still had those same feelings as I do. I've never gotten you out of my head."

Spencer slowly removed her hand from his shoulder. "Alex, I'm with Toby. And I'm so, so happy."

"Yeah, I can see that. Have you wondered what could have been with us if I hadn't been that harsh that night?"

"I've thought about it. I mean, I guess, a little. You were another casualty of the A game and I guess over that last year I got really good at just accepting that if A took something from me, I wasn't going to get it back. Then Toby came along and A tried to take him away from me several times and each time we came back together. I guess if we were really supposed to be together, it wouldn't have been that easy for her. I'm sorry, Alex."

Alex stood up and turned around with a hand offered to Spencer to help her up, which she accepted. "It's okay. This is what I get for waiting over six months to come talk to the girl, right? I hope you're happy Spencer." He turned and walked away, back toward the street and his waiting car.

Spencer turned to go inside. She noticed Toby at the kitchen counter, clearly trying not to look like he had been watching.

She jumped up onto a stool next to him, "hey you, anything interesting going on in your head?"

"Oh you know me, just sitting in here totally not concerned that my girlfriend was outside with her ex-boyfriend having an emotional conversation." Spencer took Toby by the hand and slid off the stool as she led him over to the couch.

"Toby, I know our track record with ex-boyfriends isn't exactly the cleanest, but really, it was just an apology. He and I broke up because of something that Mona did, which she made look like I had done. He wanted to apologize for blaming me, since he's seen everything with Mona on the news." She slipped his arm around her shoulders and cuddled against him. "Really, it was nothing to worry about."

"Spencer," Toby kissed the top of her head, "an apology for that doesn't take as long as the two of you were out there and a boy doesn't come all that way just to apologize to a girl he hasn't been dating for months. He wanted you back."

Spencer sighed, "Okay, yes, he did. But he saw you walk up with me. I told him I'm happy with you and that if he and I were supposed to be together, we would've made it through everything that A did, like you and I have." She tilted her head and gave him a long, soft kiss. "I love you, Toby Cavanaugh. Remember that. We've been through a lot and we've come back together each time."

He pulled her tighter against him, "Yes we have. I love you too."

 _ **A/N: Spoby sweetness and a conversation with an ex to tie up loose ends. I hope you enjoyed it!**_


End file.
